[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 94 (Monday, June 24, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H6699]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO BILL EMERSON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Funderburk). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of May 12, 1995, the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. 
Wolf] is recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise to make 
some personal comments about our colleague, Bill Emerson, who died 
Saturday night. Bill was a very honest, very decent, very ethical, very 
moral individual. As everyone knows, he had friends on both sides of 
the aisle. Republican and Democratic Members were very close to Bill 
personally.
  I was in a small group with Bill that met in the House chapel every 
week. In the group are Republicans and Democrats, both backgrounds. We 
would pray for each other in the group, we would pray with each other 
in the group. Bill was an inspiration all the years together and was an 
inspiration during the very difficult time when he found out about his 
illness.
  Bill Emerson had a very strong faith, a very strong Christian faith. 
He loved the Lord very deeply, and his faith was very, very strong. As 
the other people know and the Washington Post points out today, Bill 
and the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Hall worked together on the issue of 
hunger. The fact is Bill Emerson went to many places with Congressman 
Hall, from Sudan to Ethiopia, to Somalia and similar places. I can 
safely say there are many people, hundreds of thousands or even 
millions of people that are alive today on the continent of Africa and 
other places that would not be alive had it not been for the work of 
Bill Emerson working with Congressman Hall. Bill was totally committed 
to dealing with the issue of hunger and working together with Tony they 
did so much good that saved so many lives.
  The fact is the people whose lives were saved do not even know how 
they were saved or why they were saved, but I want the record to show 
there are millions who are alive today because of the work of Bill 
Emerson working with Tony Hall.
  Bill loved his wife and loved his family, his four daughters, his 
wife Jo Ann. He would often talk about them. They were the center of 
his life, and he loved his family very, very much. Many times that we 
would meet he would talk about his wife and about his family, and we 
would exchange those things, and I just want that to be on the record.

                              {time}  1500

  Bill loved this institution. That should be on the record. He was a 
page in this House. I believe he was a page in the House during the 
time that there was an assassination attempt in the House of 
Representatives. I remember seeing the picture of the gentleman from 
Missouri, Mr. Bill Emerson, and the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. 
Kanjorski, who were both pages. That is how long Bill Emerson goes back 
as being identified with this body.
  He loved history. I think he read every book about Winston Churchill. 
He probably knew more about Winston Churchill than any person I knew. 
He knew more about Abraham Lincoln than anyone I knew. He loved this 
institution. He loved the Congress and he loved the House and he loved 
history.
  Last, Mr. Speaker, I know he loved the Lord and he loved Christ. I 
know in his death he has gone to be with Jesus Christ. I include for 
the Record an obituary in the Washington Post.
  The material referred to is as follows:

             Eight-Term Rep. Bill Emerson of Missouri Dies

                            (By Martin Weil)

       Rep. Bill Emerson (R-Mo.), who was found to have inoperable 
     lung cancer last year while serving his eighth term in 
     Congress, died June 22 at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center. 
     He was 58.
       Despite his illness, which sometimes led him to carry a 
     portable oxygen canister to the floor of the House, Rep. 
     Emerson was running for reelection. Agriculture dominated his 
     district's economy, and he was in line to become chairman of 
     the Agriculture Committee next year if he won and his party 
     kept control of the House.
       ``He was a fighter,'' an aide said last night. Rep. Emerson 
     believed ``that he was going to beat this thing, and he 
     fought it all the way.''
       Sometimes, in response to medical advice, he used a 
     motorized scooter to help him get around Capitol Hill, aides 
     said, but he was proud that he did not miss a vote this year 
     until the week before he entered the hospital.
       Rep. Emerson was admitted to Bethesda last Monday with a 
     respiratory infection, and he issued a statement Thursday 
     saying he was ``resting comfortably and following doctors' 
     orders.''
       Aides said he was a lifelong smoker who gave up cigarettes 
     after his cancer was diagnosed last fall.
       ``All of Congress will feel the loss of Bill Emerson,'' 
     said House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). ``He was a leader 
     on nutrition programs and a man who was admired on both sides 
     of the aisle.''
       ``Politics in America,'' a reference work on members of 
     Congress, described Rep. Emerson as a man whose votes and 
     speeches demonstrated ``a streak of ideological 
     conservatism'' but whose legislative career bore the stamp of 
     pragmatism.
       He was named in another reference work as being one of two 
     key Republicans on the Agriculture Committee who early last 
     year persuaded Gingrich to drop from the Republican 
     ``Contract With America'' a proposal to put food stamps into 
     block grants to the states. The food stamp program is a major 
     part of federal spending on agriculture.
       Rep. Emerson, a member of the House Select Committee on 
     Hunger, traveled to starvation-stricken Somalia in 1992 to 
     spotlight conditions there. When the committee was abolished, 
     its chairman, Rep. Tony P. Hall (D-Ohio), fasted 22 days; 
     according to ``Politics in America,'' Rep. Emerson fasted 
     every Monday in sympathy.
       Rep. Emerson, a native of Hillsboro, Mo., largely was 
     raised by a grandfather who was a county judge, and he 
     acquired early what was to be a lifelong interest in politics 
     and government.
       As a teenager eager to become a congressional page, he came 
     to Washington in the 1950s without the promise of a job. But 
     repeated knocking on the doors of members of his state's 
     delegation won him admiration for his initiative and resulted 
     soon in the post he sought.
       Aides said he regarded the assignment as a dream come true. 
     After receiving a bachelor's degree in political science from 
     Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., he returned to Washington 
     to work for Rep. Robert Ellsworth (R-Kan.). Subsequent jobs 
     included stints as a lobbyist and as a staff member for Sen. 
     Charles McC. Mathias (R-Md.). In the meantime, he received a 
     law degree from the University of Baltimore.
       In 1980, he went back to Missouri to defeat a Democratic 
     incumbent and become the first Republican to win the 8th 
     District seat in 52 years.
       Aides said Rep. Emerson's mother, Marie Hahn, his wife, Jo 
     Ann, and his daughters, Elizabeth, Abigail, Victoria and 
     Katharine, were at his bedside when he died.

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